Colin Stephen Matthews CBE FREng (born 20 April 1956) is a British businessman, and the Chairman of Highways England, a position he has held since 2014; and EDF Energy.

Early life

He attended the independent Oundle School in north Northamptonshire. He is the son of Sir Peter Matthews, the former boss of Vickers, and was born in Canada. He holds dual Canadian-British nationality. In 1977 he gained a First Class MA degree in Engineering from the University of Cambridge. In 1984 he gained an MBA from INSEAD, a famous business school in France. He became a Chartered Engineer.

Career

He started out on an engineering apprenticeship at Lucas Girling, a brakes manufacturer, in Birmingham, in 1977. British Airways Concorde G-BOAD

General Electric

He joined GE in 1988.

British Airways

In 1997 he became Managing Director of the engineering division of British Airways. As Technical Director, he left British Airways in 2001.

BAA

In 2008 he became Chief Executive of BAA plc, renamed Heathrow Airport Holdings in 2012. He announced his resignation from Heathrow Airport Holdings on 1 April 2014 when he announced he would leave the company later that year. Heathrow is Europe's busiest airport.

Highways England

On 21 July 2014 he was appointed as Chairman of the Highways Agency, which became Highways England in December 2014. He took up his position at the Highways Agency on 1 September 2014. As of 2015, Matthews was paid a salary of between £130,000 and £134,999 by the agency for his part-time role, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time.

Personal life

He is married with four children. He has a French wife, Florence. In 2015 he became a Fellow of the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior ...

. He lives in the

London Borough of Richmond upon Thames The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames () in southwest London forms part of Outer London and is the only London borough on both sides of the River Thames. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas amalgamated under the London ...

, with another house in France. He enjoys sailing in Cornwall. He is a devout Christian.

References

External links

Highways England

Royal Academy of Engineering
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matthews, Colin 1956 births British Airways people Businesspeople in aviation Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English chief executives Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Heathrow Airport Holdings INSEAD alumni People educated at Oundle School People from Richmond, London Living people